CHAPTER XXXVII
Black Dawn
"I still think we should have waited for Demetri to recover," Ivory said as she, Lilly, and Lilith continued further into the Labyrinth.
"I know," Lilly said, "but you know that—"
"We're on a time limit," Lilith said. "Yeah, I can see the stupid countdown timers all around us. Every damn clock in this stupid orphanage is counting down."
Orphanage. That's right. Ivory had another dream about Elise and her orphanage last night.
That's why I'm more eager than usual to complete this Labyrinth run, she thought. Even though I'm really in no condition to keep fighting.
—
"Elise!" Ivory yelled. "Get the children back in the house!"
"But, what about you?" Elise said.
"I'll stop them dead in their tracks. I won't let anything happen to you or the children. Is there a safe room for you to hide them in?"
"There is, but—"
"Now is not the time to argue! Get them to safety!"
"O-Okay."
As the brigands surrounded her, Ivory readied herself for battle, drawing Elfenbein and surrounding herself with glyphs of every manner.
I won't let you harm them!
—
Ivory shook her head, focusing on the battle at hand. That image just now was a mere dream. The Labyrinth ahead of her was no dream. It was real. And it had real souls that she needed to save.
"Lilly!" Lilith yelled.
"Right!" Lilly said as she summoned her knight, going into battle with him and her Wraith.
Ivory would not be the one to get left behind. She had to live up to her reputation as the Vytal Festival Tournament's reigning champion, dubbed the Blizzard Princess by her fans. She opened up a glyph behind her, rocketing forward and swinging Elfenbein with enough force to cut an attacking Corrupted clean in half. She activated her enhancement glyphs as well, all four appearing at her wrists and ankles like holographic bracelets and anklets.
"Hey!" Lilly said, noticing her younger cousin's increased combat abilities. "It's those glyphs you used against Athena during the tournament!"
"Yes, it is," Ivory said as she continued slashing and stabbing through her opponents.
"You get distracted way too easily, you know that?" Lilith said.
"That's mean!" Lilly said.
"Ugh, what if this is the side effect of us two splitting apart again? You become more stupid without me around."
"That's really, really mean!"
"Yo, I just thought of a sick ass name for this team."
"What is it?"
"Well, there's Lilly, me, Ivory, and our Knight."
Lilly stood in thought.
"C'mon, dude, it isn't that hard."
"Hey!"
"Team KILL," Ivory said as she set a Corrupted on fire with some Dust from her weapon.
—
"Ivory's aura level is dipping too fast," Ariadne said. "What the heck is going on in there?"
"Simple," Demetri said, massaging his right knee. "She's in there with her big cousin right now. And Lilith. And she can't let herself fall behind them, even though she should know better than to try and compare herself to two magical powerhouses."
"How is your knee doing?"
"Better than yesterday. Still, if only I hadn't overexerted myself. I should be in there with them."
"If you want to be useful to the team, then come and join me here."
"What do you need me to do?" he said as he rolled his chair to her.
"How are you with computers?"
"I can survive on social media."
"I suppose that's good enough. I need you to keep track of these meters here."
"Are these EP gauges?"
"Yes, and an aura gauge for Ivory. Whenever they dip past the marks, I need you to send them pings. We might not be able to communicate with them by voice down in the Fourth Layer, but I've figured out that simple signals like lights and beeps can actually get through to them, and they can confirm receiving the pings."
"I see. I have to wonder now why you do this alone so often. Why don't you have an entire team supporting you here?"
"Because no one else can keep up with me, that's why."
He watched as she went from keyboard to keyboard, monitor to monitor. What she was doing was a complete mystery to him. He was aware of her constant Labyrinth remapping, keeping up with the shifting space-time in the other world, but there were other things he had no idea about.
"What are those dots?" Demetri asked.
"The red ones are all Corrupted," she said. "Purple are the other monsters. The blue dots are the girls."
"And the green ones?"
"Non-hostile Shades. Ever since Lilith introduce them to me, I've been able to locate them. They're mostly passive, but since we can't predict their intentions, I usually map out a route that avoids them entirely if possible."
"I see." He watched as Ivory's aura level dipped below the first of three markers. Doing as Ariadne told, he sent her a ping.
—
Damn it, Ivory thought as she glanced at her scroll. The LabNav app gave her an alert. Her aura had just hit 75%. I've been pushing myself too hard.
"Aww!" Lilly said, looking at her own scroll.
"Did you just get pinged?" Lilith chuckled.
"My EP output is down!"
"So is your aura," Ivory said.
"Wait, really?"
"You haven't noticed?" Lilith said, putting a hand on her forehead.
"I don't even remember when it broke!"
"You are such an airhead."
"That's not very nice!"
Ivory looked at her scroll's aura gauge. She was back up to 90%. It was time to continue the attack, but she made sure to keep it at a steady level rather than sustained bursts of power. In spite of Lilly and Lilith's advantage with their magic, Ivory continued to keep up with their progress. Sheer skill and know-how enabled her to fight on nearly level ground with her elder cousin and her Wraith.
Amazing, Lilith said, watching as Ivory and Lilly fought side by side. Every now and then, Ivory would project a glyph Lilly would then use as a platform from which to launch an attack or avoid danger. Lilly would also use her own magic to bolster Ivory's defensive and offensive power, also providing her healing when her aura took too heavy of a hit from a wayward magic attack from a rogue Creature of Shadow.
Lilly's knight stood beside Lilith and the latter looked up at the translucent being of magic.
"What's up, huh?" she said.
The knight gestured with its head toward the two cousins.
"You sayin' you don't wanna fall behind?"
The knight nodded.
Lilith couldn't stop the grin as she held her blackened Caliburn at the ready. "Let's go, then!"
Lilly gawked as Lilith and their knight rocketed at the swarms of Corrupted, fighting them off successfully despite being surrounded on all sides.
"Take this, you freaks!" Lilith said, holding out a hand and summoning a Fire Rune and a Lightning Rune at once, overlapping them in the air. "Flammende Hölle!"
The blast of fire she projected from that combination rune was unlike any Fire Rune spell Lilly had ever seen. It was as though the Wind Rune had amplified the power of the Fire Rune, magnifying the conflagration by more than quadruple.
"That was amazing," Ivory said, gawking at the scorched environment ahead.
"How did you do that?" Lilly shrieked, running in place.
Lilith glanced back with a grin. "That's a secret."
"No fair!"
"The funny thing is that you've done it before."
"Huh? When?"
"A while back. You have access to so much magic and you have no idea how to do any of it by will. It just happens."
Lilly whined.
"You know, it's kinda like, if you were a musician, you could play any song you wanted to just by listening to it and then replicating it on your instrument, but you can't read notes and you have no idea what meter or scale is."
"But I can't read musical notes! And I have no idea what meter and scale are!"
"That's...literally what I just said."
"As entertaining as this is," Ivory said, looking down the corridor, "I think we have some trouble up ahead."
"Something we haven't seen before?" Lilith said before her eyes widened in alarm. "Oh! Oh, shit!"
"Are those teeth?" Lilly screamed. "The whole hallway is being chewed up by teeth!"
"Run!" Ivory yelled.
—
"What...is that?" Demetri said, staring at the screen in front of him.
"That is an expanding distortion," Ariadne said, furiously typing away. "It's manifesting as the literal destruction of the space in the Labyrinth."
"And it's chasing after them."
"Yup. That's happened to you before."
"You mean the Labyrinth collapses?"
"Exactly."
"But, that's not what's happening right now."
"What they're dealing with is a localized space-time collapse. We'll see when they get back whatever it is their body cameras are capturing right now."
"Localized collapse, huh?"
"Yes, and the look on your face tells me you've already thought about the implications."
"They don't have much time."
—
All three girls yelped and groaned as they landed in a heap, barely escaping literal jaws of defeat.
"Ow," Lilly said, rubbing her head and looking back. The hallway they had been running through had been reduced to rubble.
"Convenient," Lilith said, standing up. "That thing chased us right into the core."
"What's going on here?" Ivory said. "It looks like business as usual."
There were a number of staff out and about, taking care of the children as they played and ate and napped. The only unusual thing about the scenery was that every single one of them had those glowing red vein-like tendrils rising out of their bodies and disappearing into the darkness overhead.
"We're almost out of time," Lilith said. "Look."
"The veins are starting to dim," Ivory said.
"Yup. As soon as they disappear, we won't be able to cut them anymore. Which wouldn't matter anyway because the moment they disappear is the moment the Shade has been completely absorbed into the World of Shadow, meaning it won't be long until their real-world counterpart is dragged here, too, giving birth to a Corrupted."
"We can't let that happen," Lilly said.
The other two looked at her and her knight. Lilly's face was painted with utter resolve. Her earlier levity was gone, replaced by a harsh scowl. She wasn't the only one with a strong drive to save these children and their caretakers. Ivory also could not help but feel an attachment to them because of the continuous dream she had been having lately, and especially because of last night's dream in which she had to protect the orphanage and its inhabitants.
"I don't sense any trouble," Lilith said before quickly assuming a battle stance. "I lied. I see them. They're everywhere."
"Who's everywhere?" Lilly said, sensing something, but not seeing anything.
"Are those pirates? Seriously?"
Ivory gawked at the scene. Chaos ensued as a band of pirates scattered the children and caretakers, sending them scurrying into rooms left and right.
"No way," she muttered. "That was a dream, right?"
"What are you mumbling about?" Lilith said.
"N-Never mind. We'll talk about it later. Can you sense the nature of these pirates?"
"Yeah, they're Labyrinth projections. None of them are Corrupted or Shades, except...that one!"
"The pirate leader!" Lilly said, readying Caliburn for action simultaneously as her knight. "C'mon!"
"Wait!" Lilith yelled. "Oh, leave it to her to rush headlong into a fight!"
"We have to give her backup," Ivory said, projecting glyphs behind both of them to propel them forward.
"There's more than one!" Lilith yelled, clashing swords with another Corrupted.
"What's with these guys?" Lilly said, facing off with the pirate captain. "Why are they so strong for Corrupted?"
"Oh, it's you again," a familiar voice boomed in the distance.
"That voice," Ivory said. "It can't be. Lilith, is it possible for multiple Labyrinths to have the same projection?"
"He's not a projection," Lilith said, scowling at the man. "That's Luciano Semenza's Shade. Or more appropriately, his Corrupted form."
"Corrupted? But..."
"I know. He's not all gross and tortured like the others. I didn't know if it was possible myself, but there he is."
"What exactly is going on?"
"Back in Ecumene, the interaction between a person and their Wraith is the ultimate self-reflection. Either you completely give in to the part of you that you probably shouldn't and end up destroying yourself as a result, or you conquer it, temper it, and turn its energies toward fully actualizing yourself. Instead, what we're seeing is the Shade becoming empowered by the real-world Luciano Semenza. It's like a perversion of the natural order. The only reason anyone's Corrupted Shade would have this kind of autonomy in the World of Shadow is if there was magic involved. I doubt the real world Luciano Semenza is a mage, though."
"A mage?"
"Mm-hmm. That would make this guy his Wraith, but I don't sense that from him. He's a Corrupted through and through."
Ivory looked over at Lilly, who was gritting her teeth. Her grip on Caliburn turned her knuckles white.
"Calm down, Lilly," Lilith said quietly, but her other self couldn't hear her. She walked over to Lilly and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"L-Lilith?" Lilly said, looking over at her Wraith.
"Don't let him get under your skin."
She gave her a nod before turning back to the mob boss. "What do you want from these people?"
"What do I want?" said the Corrupted Luciano Semenza. "This is my orphanage. I'm just here to survey my property and collect the money they owe me."
"I knew it," Ivory said. "This is a front for some kind of illicit operation."
"I'm curious as to how the hell you three girls know about this place." He turned to his men. "Which of you fuckwits can't keep your goddamned mouth shut?"
"N-Not me, boss!" one of the men said.
"Me n-neither!" another said.
Semenza turned to another, whom he promptly shot in the head without flinching.
"He killed one of his own men!" Lilly said.
"He's a crime boss," Lilith said. "What did you expect?"
"Put a rat in his mouth and leave his body where the cops can find him," the Corrupted Semenza said. "Hey, Phil. Good on you figuring out who the fuckin' snitch was."
"Anything for you, boss."
"What in the world did we just stumble upon?" Ivory said quietly, surveying their surroundings. Goons had gradually surrounded them, but nothing about them was all that noteworthy. They were no different from any other Labyrinth projection they had faced, incredibly weak and predictable. This Corrupted form of Luciano Semenza, however, was different. She could sense something about this one that made him a much greater threat than any of their other enemies. Even Lilith was being overly cautious. That alone made her worry.
"You leave them alone!" Lilly demanded, her face red with rage.
"Lilly," Lilith growled. "I said to keep it together."
"I can't keep it together! It's because of people like him that there's so much suffering in the world!"
"Yeah, I know, but you have to calm yourself. You can't think straight like this—"
"I don't care anymore!" she screamed as she flooded her power into Caliburn, causing it to explode with golden light. The force was enough to cause Lilith to stumble away and shield her face.
"No!" Lilith yelled. "Stop!"
"I'm gonna end you right now!" Lilly seethed.
Ivory looked around, her eyes widening in terror. "Lilly! No!" she cried. "We're still in the orphanage!"
Lilly gasped, glancing around in a hurry. She had almost made a grave mistake once again. Fortunately, her team was here to keep it from happening. She allowed Caliburn's power to subside, but she had already wasted a lot of her power with the stunt she had just pulled.
"I'll handle him and his goons," Lilith said, holding Caliburn with two hands. "Knight, you're with me."
The knight nodded.
"Lilly, Ivory, I'm leaving the orphans and the caretakers to you. Free them from this wretched place."
"Okay," Ivory said.
"All right," Lilly sighed with her fists balled. She allowed Caliburn to revert to Myrtenaster in order to save energy. "Ivory, I think you need to lead right now."
Ivory turned to her cousin.
"If you don't mind."
She nodded. "Follow me."
—
"What was that energy spike just now?" Demetri said.
"That was either Lilly or Lilith powering up Caliburn," Ariadne said, pushing up her glasses before continuing to type away.
"So that's what it looks like on your end."
"Mm-hmm. I can more or less tell what you guys are doing in there just by reading all the data. Like this right here. That's one of the girls severing the red veins that tie Shades down in the Labyrinth."
"That reading fading away just now?"
"Yes. And if you look here, that's one of them engaging in battle with...something."
"Huh? A black dot?"
"Yes. Black is the color designated to as-of-yet unidentified beings. I don't recognize those readings either. They're almost like Corrupted, but not entirely. I'll review them later."
"Is that pale blue cloud there the knight?"
"Yes. Unlike the four of you, that knight's waveform is not very well defined. That's why it's so nebulous."
—
"You're quite the feisty one, little girl," Semenza said with a grin as he dodged Lilith's attacks.
Lilith surveyed her opponent. Never once did he remove his hands from his pockets or directly engage her in combat. Instead, wave after wave of goons came at her, serving as his muscle.
"I see," she said. "You refuse to get your hands dirty."
"Why do anything myself when there are plenty of pawns for me to throw at you?"
She aimed Caliburn at him, projecting several runes around where he stood before unleashing a barrage of magical attacks of multiple types. When the debris cleared, he was not among the corpses on the ground.
"Close, but no cigar," he said. She turned to him. He was seated on an armchair, surrounded by bodyguards.
How the hell are bodyguards so much stronger than their master? she thought. No. They're not stronger than him. They're literally his strength.
"It's done!" Lilly yelled. "We got them all out!"
"C'mon, Lilith!" Ivory said. "The collapse is about to start!"
Their earpieces crackled with Ariadne's voice attempting to reach them.
"That's her! We have to go! Now!"
Lilith turned to their knight. "Go with them," she said. "Keep them safe."
The knight nodded before vanishing and reappearing at Lilly's side. Lilly looked up at her knight before turning back to Lilith. "What are you waiting for?" she yelled as the building began to rumble.
"Get out of here!" she yelled. "We won't make it out in time with Semenza's men chasing us!"
"But you won't make it out either!" Ivory yelled.
"Yes, I will! Lilly!"
Lilly gasped. "Oh! Right! Okay, stay alive until we get to a rift!"
"Wait," Ivory began, "but you don't know what will happen with you two so far apart—"
"There's no time for that!" Lilith yelled, clashing weapons with one of Semenza's goons. "Get the fuck out of here, goddammit!"
"Stay safe, me!" Lilly yelled before grabbing Ivory by the wrist and dragging her to the exit.
Lilly's knight swatted away falling debris, giving the girls a running boost over chasms that formed beneath them.
"Can you still run?" Lilly said to her knight, which nodded back at her.
"You guys are almost to the exit!" Ariadne's voice sounded in their earpieces, much too clearly for their comfort.
"Your voice is barely distorted!" Ivory yelled. "How much time do we have left?"
"Seconds! Why is Lilith so far away from you two?"
"I'm holding these bastards back," Lilith's voice crackled through. "The moment I try and leave, they'll mob the shit out of Lilly and Ivory and we'll all die for sure."
"How the hell are you gonna get out of there?" Demetri all but shouted.
"We have a plan!" Lilly said.
"Wait, the slingshot?" Ariadne said. "That's much too dangerous!"
"It's our only option!" Lilith yelled. "Now shut up and let me concentrate on this fight!"
Slingshot was the name they gave to the phenomenon wherein Lilith would get dragged back to Lilly's body when the latter emerged into the real world through a rift. As far as they could tell, the further they were separated, the more severe the resulting whiplash, but that was assuming there was no limit on the distance they could be separated. And as Lilly and Ivory continued to move further and further away from the near-collapsed Labyrinth—and Lilith along with it—the more it seemed they could be anywhere on the planet and Lilith would still get dragged back into reality with Lilly.
The big question remained. How violent of an impact would that slingshot result in?
"There!" Lilly panted. "There's a rift over there!"
Ivory had long since fallen behind. Lilly had failed to notice until glancing back to check on her younger cousin.
"Ivory!" she screamed.
In response to her thoughts, her knight scooped up Ivory in its arms, dashing to her with all of the strength it had left. It ran out of magical energy and vanished just as it was upon Lilly. Ivory suddenly found herself flying at her cousin.
Both girls screamed as Ivory impacted her elder cousin and they both passed through the rift back to the real world. As expected, the slingshot began. Lilith found herself being dragged through time and space, farther and faster than ever before. The flight took all of a split second, and the next thing anyone knew, Lilly was flung into a wall with enough force to shatter both the concrete and her aura.
"Lilly!" Ivory yelled, running to her cousin, who was unresponsive. "Lilly! Lilith! Can either of you hear me?"
There was no response from either girl or Wraith.
"Damn it," she reached for her scroll. It was destroyed. Probably by the force of crashing into her cousin. "Best luck ever."
"Well, what do we have here?"
Ivory turned toward a group of thugs armed mostly with blunt instruments, though from what she knew about these people even back home, someone always had a knife or a gun on them.
"Does she look familiar to you guys?"
"Yeah. I think she was on TV sometime last year, right?"
"Oh, I remember now! That tournament! She's the Blizzard Princess!"
"Yeah, I think I remember. The uppity pretty one."
"She's a lot prettier up close, although I don't really sense the snobby side."
Ivory stayed silent, surveying her opponents. None of them seemed particularly tough, but her aura was recovering incredibly slowly thanks to her fatigue. She estimated that she might not even be at 25%. And with an aura-intensive Semblance like her own, she was at a major disadvantage. She would need to fight smart and fast.
That would be easy if she didn't have to look after her cousin, though.
"Hey, there's another one."
"Yeah, the sleeping beauty down there."
"You think they're related?"
"Probably."
"I think that one fought in the tournament, too, right?"
"Dunno."
"Let's take them back to the boss. See what he wants to do."
Before any of them could move, Ivory had drawn Elfenbein, striking one in the chest, but to her surprise, she had an aura that deflected her attack.
"Oh, you bitch!" the woman yelled before punching her in the face, causing her to lurch back and trip over Lilly.
"Dude, you're gonna scratch up her pretty face."
"Fuck you! She just tried to stab me!"
"Chill, you psycho. Isn't that the reason you trained yourself to project an aura?"
"And if I didn't have an aura, I'd be bleeding out on the pavement right now!"
"Would the two of you shut the fuck up already?" the group's leader said before tying Ivory up and dragging both Schnee girls away.
